


Heart Doodles

by itmightgetweird



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Marvel Universe, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-02 05:39:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11502897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itmightgetweird/pseuds/itmightgetweird
Summary: You probably shouldn't let Tony borrow your notebook.





	Heart Doodles

It’s honestly a miracle if everyone is fully prepared at the mission briefings. There’s always at least one person who walks in after the meetings start and it’s common that at least a couple people forgot pens or paper. On more than one occasion you planned to just grab a bunch of blank notebooks and extra pens from the supply closet and pile them in the center of the table. Though knowing the group, they’d end up taking it all from the room and still forget to bring it back next time. People love taking office supplies and the Avengers are no different.

Though to be fair, they have a lot to deal with on a regular basis between capturing lingering HYDRA agents, keeping extra-terrestrial threats at bay, and repairing their relationships with each other post-Accords. So maybe they have enough on their minds without having to remember to put a pen in their pocket so Steve doesn’t look so exasperated during meetings.

Tony always has a pencil stuck behind his ear. Always. But he can’t remember to bring a notebook to save his life. So you–being the lucky Stark employee that gets to sit in on mission briefings to take notes–started to just slide your personal 3-subject notebook to your boss. You carry it around with you all the time anyway to keep track of your daily random thoughts. Most pages hold little doodles, snippets of ideas you want to use in short stories, and probably too many lists of songs you’ve organized into themed playlists. It isn’t anything too personal, so you usually don’t have a problem with lending it to him.

* * *

The only sounds are the sharp click of your heels and your quiet grumblings as you make your way down the hallway to the conference room. You’re the one late today. It’s only by five minutes but you still have to convince yourself to actually walk in the room and ignore all your little anxieties about being late that are telling you to just skip altogether and apologize later. You know Steve won’t call you out but you still aren’t looking forward to being the center of attention as you walk in.

You’re thankful that the door barely makes a noise as you enter and you keep your eyes cast to the floor as you sink into the open seat between your boss and Bucky.

“Look who’s fashionably late,“ Tony whispers. He always looks more relaxed in these meetings than everyone else does. Like right now, he’s leaning back in his chair and nonchalantly tilts his head to the side as he addresses you.

"You could’ve told me you guys relocated,” you reply quietly. You automatically take your extra notebook and start to hand it to Tony when he raises his hand to stop you. 

“No thanks, kid. I’m covered today.”

You’re so caught up in being irked by Tony’s nickname for you that the voice chiming in from your other side causes you to jump.

“Yeah, because he took my paper.”

 _Of course he did_ , you think before passing the notebook in the other direction.

When you look up, you see the annoyed glare on Bucky’s face. It’s one you’ve often seen directed at Sam and you have to resist the urge to laugh. Once his blue eyes shift from Tony to you, his expression relaxes and the corner of his lips lift in a soft smile. You’re able to hold his stare for a second before your eyes dart to the table top in an attempt to stop the blush you know will form if you look at him for too long.

Bucky mutters his thanks and flips through the notebook, just as you hear a quiet snicker from Tony. You almost acknowledge the noise but Steve’s voice breaks through your thoughts.

“Come on, Tony; at least pretend to pay attention,” Steve says.

“Sure thing, boss.” Tony shifts in his chair, straightening his posture then slumping forward and propping his elbow on the table so he can rest his chin on his hand.

The banter between Tony and Steve makes you think of how much this group has progressed since they reunited. The atmosphere isn’t always as relaxed as it used to be but you know they’ve come a long way. The fact that Tony and Bucky are sitting as close as they are is evidence enough.

You start hastily scribbling bullet points based on the information Steve is relaying when Bucky chokes out a cough. You continue writing and scoot your water bottle over with your free hand.

Bucky ignores the water, instead addressing you quietly. “Um. This is full of stuff you write?”

“That’s the point of a notebook, isn’t it?”

There’s the sound of another small laugh and you cut your eyes at Tony. His palm has shifted and instead of his fingers resting against his cheek, they’re now covering his mouth and he’s actively avoiding meeting your stare.

Your attention is brought back to Bucky when he continues whispering. “I, um… I thought you didn’t write personal junk in here?”

“What are you talking about?”

Bucky scoots the notebook toward you and you’re immediately drawn to the doodle that takes up an entire quarter of the page: his name with a bunch of little hearts around it.

You blush as you stare at the page. There’s no way you wrote that. You’re not dumb enough to do that in a notebook you lend to other people.

_In a notebook you lend to other people…_

There’s no stopping the automatic reaction of reaching over and smacking Tony on the back of his head.

It’s not until every eye turns to you and Steve stops in the middle of his sentence that you realize what you’ve done. You’ve smacked your boss. In front of his teammates.

Your eyes go wide and you silently pray that the floor will open up and swallow you whole. Maybe something will crash through a nearby wall and everyone will spring into superhero mode and forget about what just happened. Your train of panic abruptly crashes when Tony starts laughing. Not like he’s trying to play it off–laughing like he’s enjoying himself immensely.

“I’m sorry,” he says through a smile. “I didn’t expect that to go so well… That’s perfect.”

At hearing Tony brush off the brief physical assault, your dread morphs into a mixture of embarrassment and frustration. Bucky hasn’t said anything else and honestly, you’re too terrified to look at him.

Tony’s still chuckling as you stand from your seat and make a beeline for the door.

You don’t stop when when you hear Tony call out your name; you just head straight for the elevator. You keep going until you’re back on the floor with your favorite break room–the one with a Galaga machine standing proudly in the corner. This is your go-to spot when you’re frustrated at work. It happens a fair amount actually, evident by you holding the top three highest scores on the leaderboard.

A couple coworkers are lounging at the table next to the coffee machines–the unofficial location to gather for office gossip–and one of them pipes up as you pass by. “Rough meeting with the Avengers?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” you reply. You stare down into Galaga’s standby screen for a couple seconds before pressing the start button, causing your little rocket ship to pop into place.

You’re not even past the first wave of enemy spaceships when the door to the break room opens and your coworkers fall silent. The next thing you hear is the scraping of chairs as they slide against the tile, followed by their retreating footsteps.

You glance behind you. They’re gone but now there’s a Bucky standing just inside the doorway with an unsure look plastered across his face.

“FRIDAY, you’re a traitor,” you mumble as you turn back to the machine.

“I didn’t ask her,” Bucky replies quietly.

You try to ignore the little flip in your stomach when you realize this means he pays enough attention to you to know where you go when you’re annoyed. You also fleetingly wonder if he silently asked your coworkers to leave or if he still just seems that menacing to the average person.

“Do you want me to go?”

“No, Buck.” You sigh and watch a little alien spacecraft take a dive and crash right into your ship, costing you a life.

When you turn around again, he’s moved closer and his hands are stuffed into his pockets. The uncertainty in his eyes is proof that he still has a bit of difficulty speaking his mind, and you put a lid on the screaming in your head to give him time to gather his thoughts.

“Tony drew that?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Because he enjoys calling me out.”

You  _really_  don’t want to elaborate.

You’ve been accompanying Tony to these meetings for a few months–ever since everything started to feel normal again–and so you’ve become close a few of them. Mostly Steve and Clint, but Bucky also slowly warmed up to you. But in all your random conversations, you and Bucky have never talked about significant others so you have no idea if he’s dating anyone. What if it’s Wanda; they sit next to each other a lot. What if it’s Nat? Oh God. She is terrifying enough without imagining how she’ll react if she finds out you have a stupid little crush on her boyfriend. How are you going to face any of those people again? You’ll just ask Tony to transfer you–

“You in there?”

You jump when Bucky reaches out and grabs your hands, holding them gently in his own.

“Talk to me. Please?”

That same shy smile from earlier settles on Bucky’s face again, and you feel some of your nerves melt away.

“Like a month ago, I made the mistake of asking Tony something about you. It was something harmless; I just wanted to know what book you’d been reading. I guess when he told me to just ask you myself, my face turned red or something. He’s teased me about it ever since.

"But he borrows that damn notebook all the time. I never check what he writes in it… because why would I? He must’ve done that recently though.”

You take a deep breath and huff out a laugh on the exhale. “I don’t want you to feel any kind of obligation because of any of that. You probably have a girlfriend. I sure as hell don’t miss how women look at you. So… yeah. Just… little ol’ Tony’s assistant with a crush. Oh. If he doesn’t fire me for smacking him. I can’t believe I smacked my boss-”

“Sweetheart.” The interruption brings your attention fully back to the moment. The soft smile has morphed into an almost smug little smirk. “Did you know you ramble when you’re nervous?”

“I have been told that once or twice.”

He tugs at your hands until your body is almost flush with his then wraps his arms around you. There’s a brief moment of disbelief before you return the hug and rest your head on his chest.

Of course, the moment doesn’t last long.

“Sergeant Barnes,” FRIDAY’S voice floats from the ceiling. “Mister Stark has asked me to inform you that you’re to keep your hands off his assistant.”

Bucky’s grip tightens slightly and you feel the chuckle vibrate through his chest. “Tell Stark he can have her back after lunch.”


End file.
